Monday, October 01, 2012

Clockwork at 50

Anthony Burgess seemingly never lacked motivation. His literary output comprises thirty-three works of fiction, fourteen books of non- fiction, two plays, five translations, two volumes of autobiography, two books for children and a vast catalogue of reviews and journalism. But if his muse was having an uncharacteristically costive year, perhaps only delivering up two ideas for novels and one measly outline for a book of non-fiction (a history of Britain’s coaching days, say, or a cultural study of the bed), Burgess could always turn to his calendar for inspiration. In 1964, the quartercentenary of Shakespeare’s birth, he published Nothing Like the Sun, a fictional account of the Bard’s life; in 1982, James Joyce’s centenary, The Blooms of Dublin, his musical adaptation of Ulysses, was broadcast in England and Ireland; and in 1985, Flame Into Being, a centennial tribute to D. H. Lawrence, was punctually delivered.